Tag: dresser

Gadora has something cooking, folks*. While the Animal Print requests are slowly rolling in, the extra time affords Gadora an opportunity to explore other avenues. Introducing Still Life with Settee series. I love painting furniture. Why not paint paintings of furniture? Rather brilliant, don’t you think?

Pierre Paulin chair ~ DONEEames chair ~ Done

Borrowing a few snaps from my Flickr contacts, I must give credit where credit is due.

Like this:

It’s January in Texas. Winter. Yesterday was a sunny 75º so Gadora and AJ got out in it. Seems every creature around this house (including the humans… the count is 6) has been suffering from cabin fever (and Cedar fever, but that’s a different story altogether). MAKES US BONKERS. After some minor finagling with the fence out back, that partially blew down after the last arctic winds, Gadora slung open the back door and every one happily filed out. AJ and I made our way to the front, suited up, and got to work.

Gadora and AJ in the shop

Gadora has a few projects up her sleeve. There’s the pair of dainty dressing vanity tables (separated from their middle) that I intend to revive, the set of 4 ladder-back chairs whose caning needs tightening, the awesome antique dresser that wants a new-car shine, and a few smaller pieces almost complete. Oh but wait ’til you see the wire planter basket Gadora turned into a hanging lamp!

Thank YOU Texas for giving this girl a reprieve from summer’s heat, staving off the cold, and the good company with which to get it done.

Like this:

Found a handsome 6-drawer wooden dresser on a yard/estate-sale outing with some girlfriends (and thank you both for helping me load it in my wonder wagon!). Set out, over the course of a few trips to the parent’s house, to fix it up…

Dresser ~ BEFORE

Gadora recycled the dresser’s original handles on this 3-table set and—because their “crackle” response was so great—gave this dresser a new “crackle” green face. Not as decipherable as the Lane Acclaim markings, the ‘internets’ claim K. Wee and Co. was established in 1966. Anyone care to take a stab at the manufacture date? Below (right); entire surface received a solid sanding, both belt sander and by hand, before first paint application.

Tag and side.

Each hole, 16 in all, was filled and sanded allowing a fresh start for new handles. Having had a run-in with a mangled can of latex paint, Gadora re-purposed a plastic coffee can to provide easy access for the remainder.

Remember the displaced piano bench from last week? Flickr’s “sickathanathas” piano bench-turned-kids-chalkboard-studio was the winningest inspiration, and Gadora gave hers a gadorable transformation with a can of chalkboard paint and some elbow grease.

BEFORE ~ piano bench

The inside was sanded too, to remove the gook, and make room for the pretty aviary decoupage to be applied later. The seat lifting mechanism locks bench top open.

Artist Ellen Tanner’s home, nestled in the heavily-treed South Austin neighborhood of Cherry Creek, oozes with creativity. A consummate artist, Tanner has filled her space with well-edited items she and her wealth of talented friends have created over the years. Luna L’Amour (above) is a shadow-box homage to “voluptuous burlesque gals” that Tanner created in 2002.

Ida Lewis by Ellen Tanner

Her painted ode to lighthouse keeper Ida Wells shares the same space on the home’s original stone wall hearth. To the untrained eye, it’s masterfully entertaining. Not her favorite piece, she let me snap it anyway, the other paintings still in her possession have been rounded up for a gallery in Houston.